(Washington, DC) - Today, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that it will be changing its commercial crew acquisition approach to make use of Space Act Agreements (SAAs) instead of its planned Federal Acquisition (FAR)-based approach.

Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) offered the following statement:

"While I am sympathetic to the difficulties NASA is experiencing following receipt of its appropriations for FY 2012, in light of NASA's acknowledgement that higher risk will be incurred using this new approach, I am concerned that NASA's plan does not appear to contain sufficient margins and other risk reduction measures to give Congress confidence that it has a high probability of successfully meeting the objective of providing safe and cost-effective commercial crew transportation to and from the International Space Station by 2016 or even 2017. I will be seeking more information on NASA's approach--including how NASA plans to ensure that its safety requirements will be met--as well as more concrete information on NASA's plans to ensure that the nation will have a backup capability in place as insurance in case NASA's commercial crew plans prove unexecutable within the needed timeframe."